OverviewWhat This Is
Before you begin any formal coursework on your chosen topic, this assignment asks you to think ahead — to map out a possible journey. You will select a piece, composer, genre, or stylistic feature from the Romantic era (roughly 1820–1900) that genuinely interests you, and then sketch how you might explore it across the full range of musical learning the IB DP Music course asks of you.
This is not a finished analysis or a polished essay. It is a proposal — a record of your current thinking about where your curiosity could take you and how that journey might touch on each area of the course.
Key idea: You do not need to plan something for every single criterion in equal depth. What matters is showing that you understand how one genuine musical interest can open outward — into analysis, into cultural context, into experimentation, and into performance or creation.
BackgroundThe Four Areas of Inquiry
As you write, keep the four areas of the DP Music course in mind. These are the lenses through which the IB expects you to engage with music. Consult your guide for the full descriptions of each criterion — but in brief:
Area A
Exploring Music in Context
Historical, cultural, and social dimensions. How does the music relate to its time, place, and the people who made or heard it?
Area B
Analyzing Music
Musical language: melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, texture, timbre, dynamics. What is actually happening in the sound?
Area C
Experimenting with Music
Your own musical response: composition, arrangement, improvisation, or creative engagement inspired by the music.
Area D
Presenting Music
Performance, whether solo or ensemble. How could you bring this music — or music it inspires — into live sound?
The TaskYour Investigation Plan
Write a brief report (approximately 600–900 words) that covers the following. Use the guide's criteria descriptions as your framework — you are essentially telling your teacher how you see this inquiry unfolding.
- Your focus: Name the piece, composer, style, or phenomenon you have chosen from the Romantic era. Explain briefly why it interests you — what drew you to it.
- Context (Area A): What do you already know, or want to find out, about the historical and cultural world this music comes from? What questions do you have about the era, the composer's life, or the audience it was written for?
- Analysis (Area B): Which specific musical features do you think would reward close study? Think about harmony, form, orchestration, text setting, or any aspect of musical language that seems distinctive or worth understanding more deeply.
- Experimentation (Area C): How might you respond creatively? Could you compose something in the style of what you're studying? Arrange a passage for different instruments? Improvise using its harmonic language? Describe at least one creative direction you could imagine pursuing.
- Performance (Area D): How might this inquiry connect to something you could perform? It doesn't need to be the original piece — it could be music the study inspires. What do you imagine playing or presenting?
- How it fits together: In a short closing paragraph, reflect on how these four directions feel connected for you. What is the thread running through your investigation — the central question or fascination that ties your context, analysis, experimentation, and performance into a single inquiry?
InspirationSome Starting Points
If you are unsure where to begin, consider these as possible entry points — but you are not limited to them. What matters is that the music is genuinely yours to explore.
Schubert's Winterreise
Chopin nocturnes
Wagner's leitmotif system
Brahms symphonies
Tchaikovsky's ballet scores
Schumann's piano cycles
Verdi opera arias
Liszt tone poems
Dvorák's Slavonic Dances
Fauré's Requiem
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Clara Schumann's songs
Late Romantic orchestration
National schools (Grieg, Smetana…)
SubmissionWhat to Hand In
Your report should include:
- A clear statement of your chosen Romantic era focus
- At least one paragraph addressing each of the four areas (A–D)
- A short reflection on how the inquiry holds together as a whole
- References to specific criteria language from the DP Music guide — show that you have read it
- Your own voice: this should read like thinking, not like a form being filled in
A note on depth: You are not expected to have done the work yet — only to have thought seriously about how you would do it. Honesty about uncertainty ("I'm not sure how to approach the analysis but I'm interested in…") is more valuable than false confidence.